Board size,corporate regulations and firm valuation in an emerging market: a simultaneous equation approach

We investigate the association between board size and firm valuation for a sample of 169 firms from 2002 to 2011 in South Africa (SA). The SA corporate context is interestingly and uniquely characterised by an urgency to meet affirmative action regulations, such as black empowerment in board appointments, limited qualified and experienced directors, especially black directors, concentrated ownership, weak enforcement of corporate regulations and greater government ownership. These features make SA corporate boards perform a weaker agency (advisory, monitoring and disciplining) role than Western European and US boards, but a stronger resource dependence role, by providing access to resources, such as business contacts and contracts. This suggests that any positive impact of board size on firm valuation is likely to depend on the effective execution of the resource dependence role more than the agency role. Our results suggest that board size has a positive association with firm valuation, consistent with larger boards providing better access to resources. Overall, our results support the resource dependence role of boards more than their agency role. The results are robust across a raft of econometric models that control for different types of endogeneity, as well as different types of accounting and market-based firm valuation measures.     

新兴技术演化的整体性分析框架：“三要素多层次”共生演化机理研究

新兴技术演化是在技术自身、市场需求、配套环境、企业能力等众多要素的共同作用下完成的。本文对企业能力、市场需求和配套环境与新兴技术之间的共生演化机理进行了探讨,提出了一个新兴技术"三要素多层次共生演化"模型,旨在通过研究本模型为揭示新兴技术演化过程的特征提供一个多视角的整体性分析框架,为进一步从不同层面、不同角度深入研究新兴技术演化提供理论指导。     

Innovation dynamics in the EU: convergence or divergence? A cross-country panel data analysis

This paper investigates whether a convergence or divergence of national innovation capabilities of the 15 EU countries occurs in the course of time. An answer to this question permits immediate conclusions with regard to the success prospects of a convergence of per capita incomes and labor productivities within the EU. For the empirical analysis based on patents granted at the US-Patent and Trademark Office, unit root tests for time series and panel data are used to scrutinize the convergence hypothesis. Taking all results together, evidence points to the fact that an absolute convergence of innovation capabilities is an exception. However, for a number of countries the results suggest either conditional convergence or convergence to their own growth paths.

会计师事务所内部治理：理论基础与机制创新

声誉、客户资源以及人力资本是会计师事务所的关键资源,也是事务所治理的主要对象.进入权是审计师控制和使用自身人力资本及其关键性非人力资本的能力.关键资源的控制和保留机制是事务所内部治理的关键所在,这一机制主要包括:决策权配置机制、剩余收益分配机制、授权机制以及合伙人遴选与退出机制.模型分析进一步表明,以进入权为基础的治理机制有利于事务所内部资源的优化配置,能够对审计师专用性人力资本投资形成有效激励.     

完备的资本市场与高科技企业成长——基于“用友”与“金蝶”的案例研究

本文探讨资本市场促进高科技企业持续成长的内在逻辑。在总结国外研究的基础上,笔者构建出一个三层机制模型。对用友与金蝶的案例分析,不仅论证了上述机制模型的合理性,而且发现,相对于在香港上市的金蝶所表现出来的优化资源配置、追求成长与壮大的战略倾向,在内地上市的用友则表现出明显的机会主义,缺乏承担做强主业的风险意愿,其成长的可持续性令人担忧。     

全渠道模式下农产品供应链整合的理论框架与保障机制

全渠道模式下农产品供应链整合本质上体现为以全渠道营销逆向驱动农产品供应链整合的过程。推进全渠道模式下农产品供应链整合,一方面应结合全渠道模式发展对供应链的影响,并针对全渠道模式下农产品供应链整合的运作特点,从组织层面、资源层面、信息层面对农产品供应链进行深度变革与重构,推动形成以消费需求为核心、以全渠道能力为支撑、以信息技术为手段的农产品全渠道供应链网络和生态系统。另一方面,还必须建立一套以需求分析与反馈 机制、物流配送与追溯机制、信息共享与管理机制、利益协调与分配机制为核心的运营保障机制,以确保农产品供应链整合活动的有效进行。     

Corporate Governance and the Goal of the Firm: In Defense of Shareholder Wealth Maximization

This essay is based on my keynote address at the 2016 annual meeting of the Eastern Finance Association. I propose that misunderstandings about the traditional model of corporate governance, with its emphasis on shareholder wealth maximization, contribute to negative societal attitudes about corporations. I discuss the implications of shareholder wealth maximization for other corporate stakeholders, the dangers of deviating from shareholder wealth maximization, and the roles that the media and the government play in the governance of corporations.     

Global engineering services: Shedding light on network capabilities

This paper addresses the operations challenges of effectively managing professional services on a global scale. The specific context for the study is professional engineering services and particularly those that are delivered globally – global engineering services (GES). Estimates suggest that the market for GES was around US$930 billion in 2012, rising to US$1.4 trillion by 2020 (ISG, 2013). Yet this influential sector receives scant attention in the operations management literature. The paper draws on six case studies to explore the operations management challenges of delivering GES. In doing so the paper introduces the concept of network capabilities for GES, highlighting the centrality that: (i) network resources – accessing and deploying dispersed resources, (ii) network coordination – coordinating and integrating network activities, and (iii) network learning – collective learning and knowledge management, all play in enabling the successful operational management of GES.     

The role of corrosive internalisation and denial of responsibility in stabilising inequality in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how capabilities inequality is stabilised through its consequences on those at both ends of the distribution. It outlines the development of the balance model, which is argued to help highlight these consequences. Specifically, how adverse environments associated with lack of access to resources and poor treatment can lead to internal consequences which further corrode capabilities. At the same time, denial of this corrosion or its importance is critical for those who benefit from the inequality. To avoid moral constraints being triggered it is important, necessary even, for them to see those who suffer as outside of their moral universe, or their suffering to be in no way associated with their advantage. Corrosion and denial work to stabilise the system. For those in the middle of the distribution, they may work to do so in combination. Appreciating these internalised consequences is key to addressing inequality in South Africa.     

Does Accrual Management Impair the Performance of Earnings‐Based Valuation Models?

This study examines how accrual manipulations affect firm valuation in the years surrounding the passage of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (SOX). We compare the absolute percentage pricing errors of RIM and DCF valuation models for a group of US firms suspected to have engaged in accrual manipulations to avoid a small loss or a small earnings decline vs. ‘Normal’ firms matched on industry, year and size. We find that RIM can better estimate intrinsic value than DCF for the matched Normal firms in the pre‐SOX period, but not so for accrual manipulators, and that SOX mitigates the harmful effect of accrual manipulations, completely eliminating the difference in RIM's accuracy advantage over DCF between Normal firms and accrual manipulators. As a further analysis, we redefine Suspect firms as real‐activity manipulators and find a significant across‐group difference in accuracy wedge in both sample periods, implying that SOX has prompted firms to favor real‐activity manipulations over accrual manipulations.